Join us for a webinar on Images of America: Chinese in Tehama County with Jessica Chew. During the California Gold Rush, Red Bluff emerged as one of Northern California’s most important transportation hubs. Called the “head of navigation” on the Sacramento River, travelers, merchants, miners, loggers, and agricultural workers journeyed here and continued north in California, seeking their fortunes. Chinese immigrants established a thriving Chinatown that served as a center of economic development providing lodging for seasonal workers, employment opportunities, banking, and correspondence services that linked laborers to their families in China.

Jessica will share insights from her research into her family history, uncovering historical records, newspaper archives, family photographs and recording oral history interviews. She will describe how forgotten family stories were pieced together to illustrate the history of Red Bluff’s Chinatown. Her presentation will demonstrate how genealogy research can help bring forgotten communities back to life, preserve stories before they are lost, and reconnect families with a shared heritage spanning more than 150 years.

Date: Saturday, August 8, 2026, Time: 10:00 AM (US Pacific Time)/ 1PM EST

Venue (online): Zoom

Jessica Chew is the founder of the Helen and Joe Chew Foundation and the only grandchild of Joe You Chew, a Chinese American born in Red Bluff, California’s Historic Chinatown in 1921. As a sixth generation Chinese American whose family immigrated to America in 1865 as herbalist’s physicians, Jessica is dedicated to preserving and sharing the history of Red Bluff’s Chinatown and its importance as the last steamboat stop on the Sacramento River during the Gold Rush.